"Your article clearly points out the many failings of airdrops, from inefficiency and unequal distribution to the real dangers they present to people on the ground. I appreciated you place the paltry amount of food aid delivered into perspective: the two US airdrops fed just 1.7% of the population a mere two meals."
March 13, 2024
To:
Chris Houston, Contributor, Toronto Star
Anne Marie Owens, Editor-in-Chief, Toronto Star
Dear Chris Houston
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME.org) to thank you for your recent opinion article titled: "Gaza airdrops are woefully inadequate response to humanitarian crisis", published on March 10th in the Toronto Star.
Your article clearly points out the many failings of airdrops, from inefficiency and unequal distribution to the real dangers they present to people on the ground. I appreciated you place the paltry amount of food aid delivered into perspective: the two US airdrops fed just 1.7% of the population a mere two meals.
Refreshingly, your article does not absolve Israel from responsibility by overusing the passive voice. You mention Israel’s use of lethal force off-shore; you assign responsibility for the starvation and deprivation of essentials for life to "the occupying power", (without naming Israel), but you do quote the Norwegian Refugee Council's Jan Egeland who names Israel as the party who could "fix it"
Thank you for drawing readers' attention to the Israeli-occupied West Bank where the occupation forces' decades-long 'regular' violations of human rights have intensified but are rarely reported on. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel report that wounded or ill detainees from Gaza and the West Bank are held in conditions that the Israeli newspaper.Ha'aretz has reported as constituting torture. The article reports that Palestinian patients are being "blindfolded, numbered" instead of named and that "every limb they have is shackled".
I particularly liked your writing that Canada's "historic reputation as a human rights champion and pioneer in peacekeeping," is "tarnished" by Canada's ongoing support for Israel.
Perhaps the fear of losing this international reputation will motivate Canada to take the meaningful actions you outline.
Thank you for highlighting the many reasons why Canada should forego the photo-op and use the tools we already have available to us under international law to call for a ceasefire with free flow of aid, improved humanitarian access and an end to the occupation.
Sincerely,
Renée Nunan-Rappard
Lanigan, SK
S0K 2M0
If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Desmond Tutu
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